Monkey Boy

A Novel

De: Francisco Goldman

Narrado por: Robert Fass

Our narrator, Francisco Goldberg, has been living and working in Mexico City as a journalist for over a decade, but has recently returned to New York City in hopes of "going home again". It's been five years since the end of his last relationship, and he is falling in love again. Soon, he is beckoned back to Boston by the high school girlfriend who was witness to his greatest youthful humiliations, and his mother, Yolanda, around whom his story orbits like a dark star. Backdropping this five-day trip to his childhood home is the specter of Frank's recently deceased father, Bert, an immigrant from Ukraine, volcanically tempered, pathologically abusive, yet also, at times infuriatingly endearing; as well as the high school bullies who gave him the moniker "monkey boy" and his estranged, larger-than-life sister, Lexi.

Told in an open, irresistibly funny, and passionate voice, this extraordinary portrait of growing up outside the dominant culture unearths the hidden cruelties in a predominantly white, working-class Boston suburb where Francisco - aka Paco, aka Frankie Gee - came of age. A crowning achievement from one of the most important American voices in the last 40 years.

©2021 Francisco Goldman (P)2021 Tantor

Very engaging!

A memoir of a sad, interesting life. The story is very captivating and performance of the reader great!

Hard to follow

Interesting subject matter … I learned things I did not know, but it bounced around so much, I had a hard time following. The performance was good, but the voice started to grate on me after a while. Afraid it was one of those books I was glad to finish.

NYC to Boston (and everywhere else)

Goldman’s minute descriptions of thoughts, emotions, memories, and physical landscapes are entrancing. His evocation of his childhood and memories of war in Guatemala are powerful. His love for his mother and struggle to survive his father’s rage are moving. I also love that all this is told in a series of richly embroidered tangents framed within a solo road trip from nyc to Boston.

Anticlimactic at every turn

I initially heard an interview with the author for this book on NPR, at the time it sounded interesting. I suppose this is one of those rare instances the interviewer was obliged or even paid to give a good review. Afterward I purchased this book for a friend's birthday and decided to listen to it on Audible before gifting it, now all I want to do is throw the book away. Rarely do I experience such a waste of time in even the worst of books.